Archive for September, 2017

At $ 500 with a kit lens, the Fujifilm X-A10 represents the least expensive entry point to the company’s X-system. Like its fellow A-series siblings it uses a traditional bayer filter rather than X-Trans, and though it lacks a touch screen or option for optical viewfinder, it does provide an impressive 410-shot battery life.

While it may be overlooked by Fujifilm fans seeking a robust body or better tracking autofocus, it looks plenty tempting if you’re on a budget and swayed by Fujifilm’s lovely JPEGs. We brought it along on a recent trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming – take a look at how this light and compact ILC performed.

This image was taken while spending 2 nights in a remote island camp in Ataa Fjord, at the north of Disko Bay, Greenland. The camp was quite basic, especially compared to our luxurious hotel back in town, but the photographic opportunities were incredible. We basically had a huge island to ourselves, with a lake, kayaks, hills and huge icebergs floating all around.

In the 1-2 hours between sunset and sunrise, the colors were incredible. We set out on foot to climb a 130m hill close to camp, where we’d get a good vantage point of the icebergs, and indeed, we witnessed some incredible sights.

One of them was this beautiful iceberg, floating gracefully in the fjord’s clam, reflective waters, with an incredible colors gradient surrounding it.

The photograph was captured with my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 70-300mm F4-5.6L IS lens.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates. Erez offers photo workshops worldwide.

The FAA has released a new set of drone rules that restrict UAV flight near 10 major Department of Interior landmarks in the United States, including the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and the Hoover Dam.

According to the FAA, it has decided to exercise its authority under Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 § 99.7 to establish these new restrictions after receiving multiple requests from both law enforcement and national security agencies. Starting October 5th, when these new rules go live, drone owners will no longer be allowed to fly their drones within 400ft of the following 10 monuments:

Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, NY

Boston National Historical Park (U.S.S. Constitution), Boston, MA

Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, PA

Folsom Dam; Folsom, CA

Glen Canyon Dam; Lake Powell, AZ

Grand Coulee Dam; Grand Coulee, WA

Hoover Dam; Boulder City, NV

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial; St. Louis, MO

Mount Rushmore National Memorial; Keystone, SD

Shasta Dam; Shasta Lake, CA

Anyone who violates these new rules could face criminal and/or civil penalties. The FAA says that there are “a few exceptions” to the restriction, though it doesn’t specify what they are, instead saying that the drone operator has to coordinate their plan with the FAA and/or the landmark site specifically if they wish to fly within 400ft of the above landmarks.

Drone operators can view a full list of restricted airspace on the FAA’s website.

During last week’s Save Analog Cameras live broadcast, it was announced that Bellamy Hunt of Japan Camera Hunter (JCH) is working on a new 35mm compact camera project, according to Kosmo Foto. This revelation follows Hunt’s recent launch of the JCH StreetPan 120 B&W film, which itself followed JCH’s first film launch about a year and a half ago.

Hunt reportedly didn’t reveal much about the planned 35mm camera, though he did refer to it as a ‘premium compact,’ indicating what potential future buyers can expect. The project aims to fill a growing void in the camera market, giving analog enthusiasts a modern compact 35mm option, although it could be many months before the camera actually launches.

Kosmo Foto reports that the camera may be ready for testing some time next year, though they didn’t mention whether they got that information directly from Hunt or elsewhere. Hunt discussed the topic of compact film camera scarcity in a blog post earlier this year, saying, among other things:

I would dearly love to make a compact camera, and I know what I want too … A simply [sic] point and shoot with a decent 28mm or 35mm lens, flash, iso selector and manual override. As simple as possible and made from metal for durability. The less electronic components the better, so that it can be easily serviceable and less prone to breaking down.

Whether the camera discussed last week will follow these design principles is yet to be seen, but we’ll definitely be keeping a eye out for Hunt’s creation.

If you’ve already looked at this article from earlier on tips for drone photography, you’ll already be in the mood for this challenge. But you don’t need a drone to participate – just a high vantage point, looking down. Are you “up” for it?

Photo by Jonathan Pendleton on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – View from Above

This week it’s your job to get up high and look down on the world – literally. Show us the view from above with your photos for this weekly challenge.

Share your images below:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images on the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – View From Above by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Since shipping containers are made to be stacked, that’s how they’re usually arranged when reclaimed for architectural projects. It just makes sense, right? They fit together in a certain way. But architecture firm Whitaker Studio just smashed that convention in spectacular fashion with one of the most bonkers shipping container projects we’ve ever seen, and the results are as beautiful as they are unusual.

Rising from the rocky Joshua Tree desert in California like a rare flower, this all-white residence is laid out in a starburst shape with several shipping containers pivoted up toward the sky. Each container is capped with glass and oriented to take advantage of a certain view, whether of the sky, the distant mountains, or the adjacent boulders.

Each individual container either serves as a small room for the interior, or as a giant skylight bringing natural light into the core. Dining tables and beds can be spotted through the glass from outside, wedged into the narrow spaces. In some areas, several containers are combined with their walls removed to create larger rooms. The layout is hard to determine from the exterior, but once you see images of the 2,150-square-foot interior, it makes more sense.

Though these renderings are pretty convincing, construction on the Joshua Tree residence is not set to start until 2018 on a 90-acre plot owned by a film producer. Architect and studio founder James Whitaker told ArchDaily that the client and his friends were visiting the plot of land, imagining what should be placed there, when someone pulled out their laptop and showed the group an image of a structure he’d designed several years prior, but that had never been built.

The containers are arranged to fit within the topography of the site, angled wider in some areas to accommodate the hills and rocks, creating sheltered outdoor areas for decks and hot tubs. The site is set on a natural gully created by stormwater, so the containers are raised off the ground, allowing water to pass underneath.

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You’ve probably heard this question once or twice from a novice, or maybe even asked it yourself: what exactly is the difference between the Vibrance and Saturation sliders? Well, fortunately, Jesus Ramirez of Photoshop Training Channel has put together a quick, simple, and thorough explanation that you can reference from here on out.

At the most basic level, both options increase color intensity—the difference lies in which colors they affect and how.

Saturation impacts all color intensity equally, which is why it’s so easy to go overboard so quickly. Vibrance, on the other hand, only increases the intensity of the less saturated colors in an image while simultaneously trying to avoid skin tones and prevent the gaudy posterization that happens when you crank your saturation up to the max.

Jesus covers this difference in his video—with appropriate demos of course—but he also goes a bit further by diving into how the Saturation slider differs between the HSL panel and the Vibrance panel, and showing how the two options, Vibrance and Saturation, can be combined to achieve pleasing results that don’t look like you puked a rainbow all over your image.

Check out the full 5-minute video above to see the useful rundown for yourself, and then head over to the Photoshop Training Channel for even more handy tutorials like this one.

Most iPhone launches involve some sort of shortage because demand frequently outstrips supply, but if you’re excited about Apple’s new flagship iPhone X and the impressive camera equipment inside, the news is worse than usual. According to both the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, manufacturing difficulties surrounding the phone’s Face ID hardware could lead to serious shortages and shipment delays come November 3rd.

Many photographers and photo enthusiasts are very excited about Apple’s newest smartphones. According to Apple’s keynote, both the iPhone 8/Plus and iPhone X boast bigger image sensors, and the iPhone X in particular features OIS on both the wide angle and telephoto lenses built into the back of the phone.

Add to that some image processor advances and a seriously powerful new video encoder that Apple built into the A11 chip, and there’s good reason to be impressed by the performance of the iPhone 8 Plus so far, and expect even better performance out of the iPhone X.

But even if you pre-order your iPhone X on October 27th, the day the phone goes up on Apple’s website, this Face ID manufacturing snafu could mean availability is severely limited for months. Similar manufacturing issues with the iPhone 7 Plus dual camera module kept that phone in short supply well into December.

Bottom line: if you’re holding out on buying the iPhone 8/Plus in favor of the iPhone X, don’t be surprised if your wait extends well past November 3rd.

There are several books which have influenced my paddling and photography. One of them is definitely Superior: Journeys on an Inland Sea, a wonderful coffee table book by a Canadian couple, Gary and Joanie McGuffin, full of great pictures from […]paddling with a camera

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